Team News

Wide Receiver Adam Humphries will be signing with the Titans per sources. He is coming off a standout season with the Bucs, as he had career-highs in receptions, receiving yards and receiving touchdowns. He finished his fourth season with 76 catches, 816 yards and five touchdowns

Fantasy Impact:

Humphries is coming off of a 76-catch, 816-yard, five-TD season in Tampa, so he'll take over the slot for the Titans. He'll likely be a factor as a WR4/WR5 in PPR formats.

With Golden Tate likely gone, the Eagles are planning to sign Jackson to take the top off the defense. With Alshon Jeffery, Zach Ertz, Nelson Agholor and Dallas Goedert, it's unlikely that Jackson will see enough targets to be an every-week fantasy starter, though he always seems to return good value in best ball formats. This signing is good news for Carson Wentz, who now has another dangerous weapon to utilize. It's great news for Tampa Bay's Chris Godwin, who should play 90%+ of the snaps with Jackson out of the way.

Word in Tampa before the end of the 2018 season was that wide receiver DeSean Jackson wanted to leave the Buccaneers rather than play out the final year of his contract with the team.

After Bruce Arians was hired as the team’s new head coach in January, there was a report that Arians wanted to speak to Jackson in hopes of convincing him to change his mind.

“I had a great meeting with DeSean about two weeks ago,” Arians said. “I have a ton of respect for him as a player and a person. I thought the meeting went great. I can’t speak for him, but I thought he was excited about it and I really look forward to working with him.”

Contrary to popular opinion, if Jackson were to stay in Tampa it wouldn't be a death knell to Chris Godwin's value since Godwin would likely replace Adam Humphries in the slot. Of the 56 receivers in 2018 who ran at least 25% of their routes out of the slot, Godwin was 21st in yards per route run. Humphries played 70% of the snaps last year, so if he walks in free agency there should be plenty of snaps available for both Jackson and Godwin.

Todd Bowles, recently fired as the New York Jets head coach, had an interesting choice.

If Bowles wants to be a head coach again, he had to be a coordinator again first. He was a fine defensive coordinator with the Arizona Cardinals; that’s why he got the shot to lead the Jets.

When Bruce Arians took the job as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ head coach, it was expected that Bowles would reunite with him to run the defense. Then an interesting option came along: Chicago Bears defensive coordinator Vic Fangio became the Denver Broncos’ head coach. Bowles reportedly had an opportunity to lead the Bears’ defense. From the outside looking in, it would seem that running the Bears’ elite defense would give Bowles his quickest path back to being a head-coaching candidate.

ESPN reported Bowles will join the Buccaneers after all, as their new defensive coordinator. He must like a challenge.

Fantasy Impact:

Bowles' defenses have been a little up and down. Working backwards, here's how they ranked in yards allowed: 25th, 25th, 11th, 4th (all Jets), 24th, 6th (both with the Cardinals), 15th (Eagles) and 15th (Dolphins). It's not a great sign that the Jets' defense got significantly worse over his two-year tenure or that the Cardinals dropped from 6th to 24th in 2013 and 2014. Bowles did have five-year run from 2011 to 2015 where his defenses where in the top 10 in fewest points allowed in four out of five seasons.

The Atlanta Falcons have hired former Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Dirk Koetter to again be their offensive coordinator, the team announced Tuesday.

"We are fired up to have Dirk join our staff as our offensive coordinator," Falcons head coach Dan Quinn said in a statement. "His experience and familiarity with our division will also pay dividends as we move forward."

Mike Mularkey, who parted ways after going 20-21 in parts of three seasons as head coach of the Tennessee Titans, was named the Falcons' tight ends coach on Tuesday. Mularkey also previously served as offensive coordinator in Atlanta.

Fantasy Impact:

Koetter, who turns 60 next month, previously was the Falcons' offensive coordinator from 2012 to 2014. He helped the Falcons to the NFC Championship Game in 2012 as the offense averaged 26.2 points per game and 369.1 yards per game. During his first three-year stint in Atlanta, the Falcons averaged 363.5 yards per game, 277.2 passing yards per game, and 24.0 points per game.

Todd Bowles will be Arians' defensive coordinator according to the story and Byron Leftwich, former Cards OC, will a passing game coordinator. Perhaps Arians' biggest task will be getting the most out of Winston, who the team said would return prior to hiring Arians. The story added Winston attended Arians' football camp as a youth in Alabama.

Licht said the team has no plans to cut Winston. As the story said, it shouldn't be much of a surprise because the team played Winston over the final weeks of the season - had he suffered an injury it would have guaranteed his contract for 2019. Winston was suspended and benched twice in 2018, and as the story pointed out, he has 76 turnovers in 56 games.

Black Monday gets an early start with a Sunday firing. The Bucs have a tough decision to make at the QB position going forward as Jameis Winston wasn't all that impressive and barely held off Ryan Fitzpatrick for the starting job.

Jackson's absence gives Chris Godwin and Adam Humphries a chance to finish the season strong against a poor Falcons pass defense. Both players have been up and down the last month, rendering neither as a trustworthy option, but each of them has upside if the starts line up.

Panthers QB Cam Newton (right shoulder, out) missed practice all week and is out for Week 16. The Panthers have decided to shut Newton down for the season. Taylor Heinicke will draw the start, but the Old Dominion product is largely an unknown from an NFL standpoint. In the preseason, he completed 24 of 36 passes for 323 yards (9.0 YPA) and two touchdowns against one interception. He also rushed five times for 23 yards and a score. That 7.2 pass-to-rush ratio would fall between Jameis Winston (6.9) and Blake Bortles (7.4) this year, so Heinicke can add points with his legs. He’s obviously a risky start, but there’s some upside here due to the competence he showed in the preseason and his home matchup against the Falcons, who are No. 30 in QB aFPA. Consider this news a slight downgrade for the entire offense, though we weren’t expecting Newton to tear it up this week given his shoulder. John Paulsen watched Heinicke’s preseason throws and runs and came away fairly impressed. He showed some fast feet, threw a couple of darts downfield and his sole interception was not his fault.

Chris Godwin and Adam Humphries have already been a bit hard to trust the last few weeks, something Jackson's presence won't help in the least. All three are WR4s in a difficult matchup against the Cowboys.

Thursday, December 20, 2018, 7:15pm

Falcons QB Cam Newton (right shoulder) was removed from the injury report Thursday. The Panthers have decided to shut Cam Newton down for the season. Taylor Heinicke will draw the start, but the Old Dominion product is largely an unknown from an NFL standpoint. In the preseason, he completed 24 of 36 passes for 323 yards (9.0 YPA) and two touchdowns against one interception. He also rushed five times for 23 yards and a score. That 7.2 pass-to-rush ratio would fall between Jameis Winston (6.9) and Blake Bortles (7.4) this year, so Heinicke can add points with his legs. He’s obviously a risky start, but there’s some upside here due to the competence he showed in the preseason and his home matchup against the Falcons, who are No. 30 in QB aFPA. Consider this news a slight downgrade for the entire offense, though we weren’t expecting Newton to tear it up this week given his shoulder.